In various organizations today, there is a large amount of time spent preparing for meetings and attending those meetings as well as other tasks related to meetings (e.g., action items). Generally, the attendees meet in a common place, such as a conference room to conduct the meeting, leaving the majority of their work product behind. Computing devices can be used in meetings or other scenarios to present data, share data, modify data and so forth. However, if the computers are not connected through a common network, it is difficult for the participants to view the same documents, modifications and the like.
Sometimes meetings can be productive and worthwhile for both the participant and the organization. At other times, meetings are not as productive as they should be. In addition, there can be communications occurring during the meeting among a subset of the attendees and such communications might not be shared will all participants. This can lead to a first group of people doing things that might be different, and sometimes in contrast, with a second group of people. Such disparity can lead to frustration and, in some cases, loss of interest in the subject matter of the meeting.
Meetings should allow participants the opportunity to achieve common goals while mitigating an amount of wasted time, regardless if the attendees are sitting around a table or around the country. In addition, meetings should be more than merely isolated events but should be a piece of an overall collaborative framework or organizational goal. Further, attendees should have access to the most accurate, up-to-date information as well as information that is accessible by all participants in order to help the team as a whole perform at a higher level of efficiency.